Broadcasting House
| start_date = 21 November 1928 | completion_date = | inauguration_date = 15 March 1932 | demolition_date = | architect = George Val Myer, Raymond McGrath | landlord = | owner = BBC | floor_area = | floor_count = 9 above ground, 3 below ground | awards = | references = | map_type = Greater London | map_alt = | map_caption = Location within Greater London | altitude = | building_type = | architectural_style = Art Deco | structural_system = | client = | current_tenants = BBC News BBC Radio 1 BBC Radio 1Xtra BBC Radio 3 BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 Extra BBC World Service BBC World News BBC Vision | height = | other_dimensions = | structural_engineer = | services_engineer = | lighting_designer = Rogier van der Heide | civil_engineer = Marmaduke T Tudsbery | quantity_surveyor = | main_contractor = | url = | diameter = }} Broadcasting House is the headquarters of the BBC, in Portland Place and Langham Place, London. The first radio broadcast was made on 15 March 1932, and the building was officially opened two months later, on 15 May. The main building is in Art Deco style, with a facing of Portland stone over a steel frame. It is a Grade II* listed building and includes the BBC Radio Theatre, where music and speech programmes are recorded in front of a studio audience, and lobby that was used as a location for filming the 1998 BBC television series In the Red.In the Red on IMDb.com As part of a major consolidation of the BBC's property portfolio in London, Broadcasting House has been extensively renovated and extended. This involved the demolition of post-war extensions on the eastern side of the building, replaced by a new wing completed in 2005. The wing was named the "John Peel Wing" in 2012, after the disc jockey. BBC London, BBC Arabic Television and BBC Persian Television are housed in the new wing, which also contains the reception area for BBC Radio 1 and BBC Radio 1Xtra (the studios themselves are in the new extension to the main building). The main building was refurbished, and an extension built to the rear. The radio stations BBC Radio 3, BBC Radio 4, BBC Radio 4 Extra and the BBC World Service transferred to refurbished studios within the building. The extension links the old building with the John Peel Wing, and includes a new combined newsroom for BBC News, with studios for the BBC News channel, BBC World News and other news programming. The move of news operations from BBC Television Centre completed in March 2013. The official name of the building is Broadcasting House but the BBC now also uses the term new Broadcasting House (with a small 'n') in its publicity referring to the new extension rather than the whole building, with the original building known as old Broadcasting House. Construction ]] Construction of Broadcasting House began in 1928. Programmes transferred gradually to the building. On 15 March 1932 the first musical programme was given by the bandleader Henry Hall and the BBC Dance Orchestra. Hall also wrote and performed, with his Dance Band, Radio Times, the name of the BBC's schedule publication. The first news bulletin was read by Stuart Hibberd on 18 March. The last transmission from Savoy Hill was on 14 May, and Broadcasting House officially opened on 15 May 1932. George Val Myer designed the building in collaboration with the BBC's civil engineer, M. T. Tudsbery. The interiors were the work of Raymond McGrath, an Australian-Irish architect. He directed a team that included Serge Chermayeff and Wells Coates and designed the vaudeville studio, the associated green and dressing rooms, and the dance and chamber music studios in a flowing Art Deco style. The building is built in two parts. Dispensing with the oft-found central light-well of contemporary buildings this size, the central core containing the recording studios was a windowless structure built of brick. (Structural brick rather than steel framing was used in order to reduce noise transmission both from without and between studios.) The surrounding outer portion, designed for offices and ancillary spaces, is steel framed and faced using Portland stone. While the outer portion had plenty of windows, the inner core required special sound-dampened ventilation systems. There were two areas where right of ancient lights would cause height restrictions. While the rights on the southern side ceased to be a problem after the owners of those rights gave concessions, the rights on the eastern side were dealt with by sloping the roof away from the street from the fourth floor up, which affected not only the floorplan of the structure but meant that the interior recording tower could not be continued up to the top floor. (Thus, one studio on the top floor was actually outside the central studio core structure.) Underground structures, including a hundred-year-old sewer, also presented problems during construction. The building is above the Bakerloo line of the London Underground: the Victoria line was tunnelled beneath in the 1960s, and presented problems for construction of the Egton Wing (see below).BBC – Press Office – Broadcasting House London development Noise from passing trains is audible within the radio theatre, but generally imperceptible in recordings. ]] The ground floor was fitted with floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the street, as it was believed that to finance such a project (costing £25,000,000 in today's money) they would need to let the ground floor as a retail unit. The rapid expansion of the BBC meant this never occurred. The building showcases works of art, most prominently the statues of Prospero and Ariel (from Shakespeare's The Tempest) by Eric Gill. Their choice was fitting since Prospero was a magician and scholar, and Ariel a spirit of the air, in which radio waves travel. There was, reportedly, controversy over some features of the statues when built and they were said to have been modified. They were reported to have been sculpted by Gill as God and Man, rather than Prospero and Ariel, and that there is a small carved picture of a beautiful girl on the back of Prospero. Additional carvings of Ariel are on the exterior in many bas-reliefs, some by Gill, others by Gilbert Bayes. The reception area contains a statue of 'The sower' by Gill. The original building is a Grade II* listed building, and the BBC works with English Heritage on its maintenance. Renovation Beginning in 2003, Broadcasting House underwent a major renovation during the BBC's W1 Programme, with the aim of refurbishing the building and combining a number of the BBC's operations in a new extension. This houses the television and radio operations of BBC News, relocated from Television Centre and the BBC World Service relocated from Bush House on 12 July 2012. Many of the BBC's national radio stations are also broadcast from the building, with the exception of BBC Radio 5 Live and 5 Live Sports Extra which have moved to Salford Quays, and BBC Radio 2 and BBC Radio 6 Music which moved to new studios in nearby Wogan House in 2006 to make way for the renovation. The building work was completed in two phases. It began with the demolition of two post-war extensions to the original building. ::"The redevelopment was part of a wider cost-saving strategy to consolidate the BBC's property portfolio and centralise its London operation. This will ultimately produce savings of more than £700m over the remaining 21-year life of the BBC lease on Broadcasting House."BBC – Broadcasting House – Home Freedom of Information request – RFI20111247 First phase The first phase consisted of the renovation of the original building, which was starting to show its age and needed structural repair, and a new wing to the east. In the old building the sloped "cat slide" slate roof was taken off and many of the rooms stripped back to their walls, although much of the Art Deco architecture was retained and preserved. Much of the work focused on the lower walls and ceilings, which did not include Art Deco features. The reception area was renovated to include a new desk, while retaining the message and statue as the attention piece. Many rooms had ceilings removed, such as the south tower, and new reinforcement joists were added. ]] The new Egton wing is roughly the same shape as the main building, with a modern design and window arrangement but retaining features such as Portland stone. Towards the rear a large block was created in the side, mirroring that created in the main building when the sloping roof was removed. The design of the extension, intended to equal the original in "architectural creativity", was carried out by MacCormac Jamieson Prichard. Construction was completed in 2005 and the refurbished Broadcasting House and the new Egton wing were opened by Queen Elizabeth II on 20 April 2006 as part of her 80th birthday celebrations. All areas of the Egton Wing were fully fitted out and completed by 2007. In 2012, it was announced by the then Director-General Mark Thompson that the Egton Wing would be renamed the 'John Peel Wing' to commemorate the late Radio 1 Disc jockey, whom he described as a "great radio talent". Thompson described the wing as a "fitting tribute to a man who personified so much of what the BBC stands for". Later that year, the naming was placed in doubt when Peel was reported to have had a sexual relationship with a 15-year-old girl in the 1960s,Eccles, Louise; Ward, Alex (13 October 2012)."BBC to consider renaming Peel Wing at headquarters after claims DJ had affair with schoolgirl, 15". Daily Mail (London). allegations which followed the Jimmy Savile sexual abuse scandal. It houses BBC London, BBC Arabic Television and BBC Persian Television, together with the reception area for BBC Radio 1 and BBC Radio 1Xtra. Second phase The second phase was the creation of the large wing to the rear of the building, joining the two buildings, and creating a plaza between them. The original architects were replaced for not agreeing to cost-related revisions, as Sir Richard MacCormac was unwilling to sacrifice the quality of his design. Construction was completed by Bovis Lend Lease in 2010, and control handed over to the BBC in 2011. While the rebuilding process was under way, many BBC radio stations moved to other buildings near Portland Place. The extension contains the BBC News and Journalism departments, and state-of-the-art technical equipment and new studios to house the BBC News bulletins on television, the BBC News Channel and BBC World News, the BBC Arabic Television service and the BBC Persian Television service. At the heart of this is a new newsroom, the largest live newsroom in the world. A walkway above the newsroom allows the public to view the work of journalists, connecting the foyer to the Radio Theatre and a new café for staff and the public. Complemented by the outdoor plaza, which could act as an outdoor arena and theatre, this is designed to engage the public with the television and radio making process. The extension is glass-covered in the plaza area and curved to contrast both wings either side and to continue the glass on both sides high up the building. On the Portland Place side, it continues the same use of Portland stone and glass as in Egton wing. On Monday 18 March 2013 at 1pm, following the BBC News Channel's final broadcast from Television Centre, the first news programme from Broadcasting House was aired: the BBC News at One, on BBC One and the BBC News Channel. BBC World News was the first of BBC's news services to move into the new building on Monday 14 January 2013, beginning with "GMT" at 12 noon. Queen Elizabeth II officially opened the extension on 7 June 2013. The second phase development won the 'Programme of the Year' award at the 2013 annual awards of the Association for Project Management. Studios Original When built, Broadcasting House contained 22 radio studios for all programme genres, in the art-deco style with an emphasis on both looks and practicality. The overall practicality of the studios changed rapidly as a result of the limitations of the time and the changing nature of broadcasting and the uses of the studios. These studios were: Current Following the rebuild and refurbishment, several studios have been added and the studio structure changed dramatically. The current studios are: Until programmes air information is subject to change. All times listed are either Greenwich Mean Time or British Summer Time depending on what is being used in London. Journalists Memorial On the roof of the John Peel wing, mirroring the radio mast, is a cone-shaped glass structure reaching into the sky to the same height as the mast. It was sculpted by Jaume Plensa as a memorial to journalists killed in the line of duty. Called Breathing, it includes words from a poem by James Fenton and is illuminated day and night. At 10pm daily, in line with the BBC News at Ten, a column of light shines 900 metres into the sky. It was officially unveiled on 16 June 2008 by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon. Broadcasting House in Literature Broadcasting House is a central feature in Penelope Fitzgerald's novel Human Voices, published in 1980, where the lead characters work for the BBC during the Second World War.Penelope Fitzgerald, Human Voices (London: Harper Collins, 1980) ISBN 978-0-395-95617-5 It is also the work place of Alexander Wedderburn in A.S. Byatt's 1995 novel Still LIfe,''A.S. Byatt, ''Still Life (London: Vintage, 1995) ISBN 978-0-09-947991-8 and Sam Bell in Ben Elton's 1999 novel Inconceivable,Ben Elton, Inconceivable (London: Black Swan, 1999) ISBN 978-0-552-14698-2 and also that of the evil nazi-sympathiser Ezzy Pound in Michael Paraskos's 2016 novel In Search of Sixpence.''Michael Paraskos, ''In Search of Sixpence (London: Friction Press, 2016) ISBN 978-0-9929247-8-2 In George Orwell's 1948 novel Nineteen Eighty-Four the building housing the Ministry of Truth, in which the lead character Winston Smith works, is based on Broadcasting House.See Keith Ferrell, George Orwell: The Political Pen (London: Rowman & Littlefield, 1985) p.156 Controversy In the 1980s it was revealed that MI-5 had a special office in the building for the purpose of vetting BBC employees for national security purposes."British Television Drama: Past, Present and Future", J. Bignell, S. Lacey. Springer, May 12, 2014. Retrieved 13 feb 2017 See also * List of BBC properties * BBC Television Centre References External links * * * * Broadcasting House – a potted history * Old BBC Radio Broadcasting Equipment and Memories – Broadcasting House in 1932 * }} Category:Television studios in England Category:BBC offices, studios and buildings Category:Cultural and educational buildings in London Category:London media Category:Grade II* listed buildings in the City of Westminster Category:History of radio Category:History of broadcasting Category:Buildings and structures in the City of Westminster Category:Media and communications in the City of Westminster Category:Art Deco architecture in London Category:Media company headquarters Category:Buildings and structures completed in 1932 Category:Richard MacCormac buildings